John Yuyi and the subtle art of not giving a…
John Yuyi’s dream job is to photograph the enigmatic dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. If this doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the artist, then we don’t know what will. Since entering the public psyche with her signature temporary tattoos, the Taiwanese artist has been making a name for herself as one of the most humorous and joyful figures in contemporary art.
In a field all too often bogged down in chin-stroking pretentiousness, Yuyi's self-reflective and unabashed approach to art is a breath of fresh air—a welcome respite in a world filled with heavily edited identities. Her body of work reads more like a journal or visual memento, resisting the urge to push a conscious message to her audience. “I think when I create my work, I don't anticipate what people will see. I recently kind of found out that my work is like my diary…I don't really mind how they define the works.”
In her latest photobook, Yuyi documented her brief flirtation with plastic surgery. After finally succumbing to the temptation of a nose job, a desire brought about by a childhood exposed to Western beauty standards, Yuyi had a piece of bone removed from her ear and transplanted into her nose. The result delivered her the pointed nose tip, so often envied by young women across Asia, but what she didn’t factor in was a self-inflicted severing from her past. “I was looking back at my old pictures, thinking about my round nose. My family and I go to this restaurant together [in Taiwan], and the owner says we all look alike. I can’t go back to that restaurant anymore…”
John Yuyi, In Memory Of (2023)
What followed was a two-week series showcasing the artist’s fleeting relationship with her new nose aptly called “In memory of my ear bone that was once in my nose for two weeks. The day before it went back in my ear, I decided to take my nose on a date to an amusement park, just the two of us.” It is this continually candid and sincere approach that has made Yuyi so beloved by her fans. An artist fully aware of her insecurities, viewing them as a source for creation rather than an object to be relegated to the attic of her memory.
